The National Retail Federation reported 2019’s holiday retail sales grew 4.1% over the same period in 2018 to $730.2 billion. Online and other non-store sales rose 14.6% to $167.8 billion and are included in the totalE-commerce services and payments provider Shopify Inc. is offering new businesses what it calls “starter loans” of $200 through …

J. Christopher Giancarlo, former chair of the Commodity Futures Trading Commission, is working with other individuals and with the consulting firm Accenture to develop a United States Central Bank Digital Currency, known as the “digital dollar.” The development will take place under the auspices of a new organization called the Digital …

Data-security provider Very Good Security (VGS) announced an investment by Visa Inc. The amount of the investment was not disclosed.In related news, Visa announced it has met its goal to use 100% renewable electricity by 2020 across its worldwide operations. Visa set the goal in 2018.Google said it acquired Pointy, a company that helps local retailers …

Visa Inc. said starting Jan. 21 merchants using Visa Checkout will transition to the card brand’s Secure Remote Commerce service. Visa says consumers that have enabled their cards with the service no longer will have to enter the primary account number for compliant transactions. The experience also is compatible with industry tokenization …

In what could be the first time a stadium has been named after a payment platform, First Data Field, the St. Lucie, Fla. spring-training home of the New York Mets and the regular-season home of the St. Lucie Mets, the New York Mets’ Advanced-A minor-league affiliate, will have a new …

The Western Union Co. announced it has worked with Du Xiaoman Financial, formerly the China-based fintech Baidu Finance, to launch Western Union international money transfers paid in real time into what the partners say is a majority of bank accounts in China.Ternio LLC said it has cut the minimum balance on its …

Diebold Nixdorf Inc. released the Beetle A1150, an all-in-one point-of-sale system. Variations of the Beetle POS system have been available since at least 2002 from Wincor Nixdorf, a company Diebold acquired in 2016.Payments processor Computer Services Inc. reported fiscal third-quarter revenue of $72.1 million, up 6.6% year-over-year, and net income of $12 million, up 5.8%. …

Consumers spent 7% more on gift cards during the 2019 holiday shopping season than in the same period in 2018, doubling the 3.4% gain seen in 2018 over 2017, according to data from prepaid program manager Blackhawk Network Holdings Inc., which did not release absolute spending numbers.The U.S. Treasury Department’s Bureau …

MyPinPad, a provider of technology enabling PIN entry on off-the-shelf mobile devices, said it has been granted certification from the PCI Security Standards Council for its software-based PIN entry on a Commercial off-the-shelf (SPoC) product for iOS.Shift4 Payments Inc., which filed for a proposed public offering in December, said it completed certification …

MoneyGram International Inc. announced online transactions grew more than 70% year-over-year between Dec. 1 and Dec. 25, a record growth rate for that period. The money-transfer provider, which did not report the actual transaction volume, said 80% of the transactions were initiated on a mobile device.PayPal Holdings Inc. has closed on its …